1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermal development apparatus and a thermal development process to be applied to image recording in a dry system using a dry material in which a wet processing is not carried out.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, thermal development apparatus and thermal development recording apparatus by the dry system in which a wet processing is not carried out are proposed. In such thermal development apparatus and thermal development recording apparatus, photosensitive and/or thermosensitive recording materials (hereinafter referred to as “photosensitive/thermosensitive recording materials”) and film-shaped recording materials including photothermographic materials (hereinafter referred to as “thermal developable recording materials”) are used as a recording medium. Also, in the thermal development apparatus and thermal development recording apparatus by the dry system, a thermal developable recording material is irradiated with laser beams in an exposing section to form a latent image; the thermal developable recording material is then brought into contact with a heating unit in a thermal development section to undergo thermal development; and thereafter, the image-formed thermal developable recording material is discharged out the apparatus. According to such dry system, not only an image can be formed within a short period of time as compared with the wet processing, but also problems of waste liquid treatment involved in the wet processing can be overcome.
As such dry system, there is hitherto known a thermal development recording apparatus shown in FIG. 13. As shown in FIG. 13, a thermal development recording apparatus 100 is provided with a recording material feed section 120, a truing-up section 140, an image exposing section 160 for forming a latent image in a thermal developable recording material F, a thermal development section 180 for thermally developing the thermal developable recording material F, and a power source section 155 and a control section 150 for driving these respective sections in sequence in the traveling course of the thermal developable recording material F.
The thermal developable recording material F is taken out one by one from the recording material feed section 120 and fed into the truing-up section 140. In the truing-up section 140, the recording material F is positioned in the direction rectangular to the traveling direction (this direction being hereinafter referred to as “width direction”) and then traveled into the mage exposing section 160 in the downstream side.
The image exposing section 160 is a site for imagewise exposing the thermal developable recording material F upon scan exposure with light beams and is constructed so as to have an exposure unit 146 and a sub-scanning traveling unit 148. The exposure unit 146 is a known light beam scanning device for polarizing light beams L having been pulse width modulated corresponding to a recorded image to the main scanning direction (the width direction of the recording material F) and making them incident into a prescribed recording position. Since the light beams L having been pulse width modulated corresponding to the recorded image are polarized to the main scanning direction, the thermal developable recording material F is two-dimensionally scan exposed by the light beams L to form a latent image.
After forming a latent image in the image exposing section 160, the recording material F is traveled into the thermal development section 180 by traveling rolls 164, 166 and the like. The thermal developable recording material F having been subjected to thermal processing in the thermal development section 180 is sent out into a tray 192 via a discharge roll 191.
Here, the thermal development section 180 is provided with flat plate heaters 181a, 181b, 181c as heating bodies which will reach the temperature necessary for processing the thermal developable recording material F, the plate heaters 181a, 181b, 181c being arranged in the traveling direction of the thermal developable recording material F; transfer units 186, 188 for transferring relatively against the respective plate heaters 181a, 181b, 181c while bringing the thermal developable recording material F into contact with the surface of each of the plate heaters 181a, 181b, 181c; and press rolls 182a, 182b, 182c as units for pressing the back side of the surface of the thermal developable recording material F coming into contact with the respective plate heaters 181a, 181b, 181c for the purpose of conducting heat to the thermal developable recording material F from the plate heaters 181a, 181b, 181c (for example, see JP-A-2000-321743 and so on).
Now, in general, an image forming layer containing an emulsion and the like is formed on the both surfaces of the thermal developable recording material F. In the thermal development section 180 of the related art thermal development recording apparatus 100, since the thermal developable recording material F is transferred in the traveling direction while pressing on the plate heaters 181a, 181b, 181c by the press rolls 182a, 182b, 182c, the surface of the thermal developable recording material F is in friction at the upper surfaces of the plate heaters 181a, 181b, 181c. Accordingly, there was room for an improvement in view of the matter that the image forming layer containing an emulsion and the like is peeled.